The Israeli assault on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009 inflicted high levels of stress and insecurity on its Palestinian population, a study published by The Lancet on Friday said.

The paper in the peer-reviewed British journal provides statistical backing for doctors who say the operation — in addition to killing around 1,400 Palestinians and injuring thousands more — left deep psychological scars.

Public health researchers led by Niveen Abu-Rmeileh of Birzeit University in the West Bank carried out a survey of around 3,000 Gazan households, numbering nearly 18,000 people, six months after the conflict.

Eighty-five percent of respondents reported moderate or high levels of insecurities, fears and threats, and 49 percent said they had moderate or high levels of distress.

I suppose having thousands of rockets fired at them–not to mention decades of terrorist attacks–caused Israelis to have elevated stress levels too, but the researchers didn’t seem interested in that. No doubt living under Hamas can also make one a little jumpy, but that didn’t make its way into the medical journal, either.

Generating “data” to support left-wing talking points is a well-funded industry. But no matter how many such propaganda pieces are published, it is obvious to any sentient being that what Gaza and the West Bank need is to get rid of Hamas and other terrorist groups and abandon their genocidal designs on Israel. If that ever happens, the stress level in the region will decline precipitously.”